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It looks as if IMS officials have been given the green light to hold the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on schedule this May with fans. There are still many questions remaining, but the biggest one right now is how many?

I’ve heard ranges anywhere from 10% capacity all the way up to 75% of capacity. I think the truth is definitely somewhere in between those guesses.

From the time that this pandemic hit, which I always pinpoint as Friday March 13 – the beginning of the IndyCar opening weekend at St. Petersburg; it almost immediately became a political football. Like everyone, I have my own political opinions that I tend to keep to myself – especially on this site. I never understood why what you thought about the pandemic, defined where you stood politically. Likewise, it bewildered me that if you had certain political beliefs – why would you be expected to think a certain way about the pandemic?

If you read this site last spring or summer, you know that I tended to downplay the pandemic in favor of keeping businesses open and continuing to hold live sporting events. In today’s climate, close friendships can devolve into lifelong enemies by speaking your opinion on the pandemic. No one is allowed an opinion anymore. My beliefs were challenged respectfully on this site, and a little less diplomatically on social media. I also received some a couple of rather scathing e-mails that I think were both from the same person, but they were unsigned and the e-mail addresses were a bunch of numbers and letters. But they managed to misspell the same words the same way. If you’re going to send cowardly unsigned e-mails, at least make sure they are grammatically correct.

These two e-mails labeled me as a right-wing zeelot (I’m assuming they meant zealot). What are the odds of getting two e-mails in the same day with that spelling?

Although I certainly don’t consider myself a “zeelot”, I have always thought that there were more responsible ways of handling this virus than completely shutting down an economy, or in this case – live sporting events.

The NFL has botched a lot of things lately, but they did what the naysayers said was impossible. They got in a full season, where each team played all sixteen games – plus the playoffs. They didn’t even have to go to a bubble. Their only obstacles were in states and cities that didn’t allow attendees at sporting events. The city of San Francisco even went so far as to outlaw contact sports, so the 49ers had to finish out their “home” season in Phoenix. But if overzealous local restrictions didn’t get in the way, fans were allowed to attend football games – including the Super Bowl which featured a good sized crowd.

Fans are still wondering what an IndyCar season will look like in 2021. When we attended Road America in mid-July last year, there were no real restrictions on attendance. Fans chose whether or not they wanted to go. We chose to go and had a blast. Although overcrowding has never been a huge problem at Road America, the crowds were decidedly down, because not everyone felt comfortable being there. Consequently, it made for a very pleasant experience for those of us that did go, because lines at the concessions stands were non-existent. I don’t know how fewer people were there, but I never heard of an outbreak in southeastern Wisconsin afterwards.

Road America is my only personal point of reference, but things seemed to work there. I am hopeful that the season-opener at Barber in mid-April will be a similar experience. Overcrowding has never been a real issue there either, but they may not be able to run their free tram service that circulates the perimeter of the park.

Of course, the big question is…what will the Indianapolis 500 look like?

I think the best we can hope for is 50% capacity, much like what they planned for when the Indianapolis 500. I’m afraid that families will be forced to choose who goes and who sits at home – this time for the second year in a row.

We have four tickets in Stand A. We were guaranteed at least two of the tickets, but were allowed to request one or both of the remaining two, but you weren’t guaranteed your exact seats. We decided to give one up and requested a total of three. We received our three tickets in the mail near the end of July, which was a strange time to receive that familiar blue envelope. Our “new” seats were in the same spot where our normal seats are. I think we probably could have gotten all four, because so many people were choosing to stay away.

I’m thinking that may not be the case this year. With the COVID numbers trending down and multiple vaccines available, I think more and more people are going to feel more comfortable going to 16th and Georgetown for Memorial Day. Plus, many of us are going through withdrawal – having not been to the race in two years, by then. I suspect ticket demand is going to be extremely high, if hotel rates are any indication. Rooms seem to be outrageous compared to 2019. We have booked one place, but it is high and further out than we like. We will watch to see if rates drop, and possibly move – but for now, we are stuck out past the airport for as high price.

Some people have ten or more seats together that they have had for decades. Chances are, those people will have to make choices like they did last year. That means someone in a group or family will be forced to sit this one out.

Of course, after making all the seat reassignments and sending out new tickets, we learned less than two weeks earlier that no one would be allowed to attend the Indianapolis 500 when it finally came around on Aug 23. My small streak of eighteen consecutive races ended, but some had streaks of more than sixty races come to an end. I guess it helped that no one else was allowed to attend, but sitting at home and watching the Indianapolis 500 in August was just strange, and something I never want to repeat.

I’m also hopeful that the earlier weekends in May will have fans. Is it possible that the GMR Grand Prix can go without a limit on fans? It generally draws smaller crowds, and fans should be able to spread out throughout the property. I also hope that Qualifying Weekend will not have any limits. Two years ago, I would bet that less than 10,000 fans showed up for either day of Qualifying Weekend – although it’s hard to estimate small crowds in a venue that massive.

Racing fans have been more than patient for the past year. I feel very fortunate that we were able to attend one race in 2020, but it wasn’t enough. I can’t imagine what it is like for those that only attend the Indianapolis 500 once a year, and having it taken away from you…essentially twice last year.

The first two races of the 2021 season have already been moved back, but that was probably wise. I have no problem readjusting the schedule. It’s when multiple races are cancelled with a broad sweep, without the chance of coming back – like Barber, COTA, Long Beach, Toronto, Richmond, Portland and Laguna Seca – that gives me a headache. My hope is all races run with some fans in attendance, with minimal schedule adjustments and we get in the scheduled seventeen races.

I’m sure there are some readers of this site who still think that no races should run this year, until the virus is completely squashed. That’s fine if you do, but I think more and more people are becoming increasingly comfortable with getting out and enjoying sporting events, while still being responsible. I am hoping that this May looks a lot more familiar.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on February 24, 2021 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.